JAMMU: JKNPP activists alongwith the members of civil society today organised multiple protests at several places in district Udhampur including Udhampur town, Ramnagar, Manwal, Sarar etc to lodge their strong indignation over the pre-mature transfer of DC Udhampur Shahid Iqbal who they claimed had brought revolutionary changes in district Udhampur during his one year tenure.
The protestors led by Pavan Dev, Rajesh Sharma, Pushpinder Singh, Jagdev Jagga, Dharam Singh Bittu, Karnail Singh, Purshotam Singh, Balwant Raj Sharma, Dhani Ram Attri, Sunil Singh Sumbriya, Baldev Singh Mankotia and others raised anti BJP and anti govt. slogans.
They blocked traffic at various places resulting in suspension of vehicular traffic for several hours. They sought the revocation of the transfer order at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, has described the pre-mature transfer of Shahid Iqbal as politically motivated and revealing at the same time the fascist mindset of the Saffron flavoured govt.
He said that some corrupt politicians particularly from BJP were desperately trying for quite some time to dislodge the incumbent Deputy Commissioner and regretted that the State govt. ultimately succumbed before such nasty characters thereby causing huge public resentment and unrest in district Udhampur.
Lauding the colossal amount of work done by Shahid Iqbal within one year of his assuming charge of DDC Udhampur, Harsh Dev Singh asserted that his pre-mature transfer was the greatest dis-service which the BJP-PDP combine could do to the people of district Udhampur. He deplored that the DC Udhampur who had been awarded twice by the GOI for outstanding services besides having been honoured several times by the State Government was so unceremoniously removed at the behest of certain negatively configured interests and conspiratorial huddle of corrupt politicians.
Making a mention of some of the unique and distinguished achievements of the DC Udhampur, Harsh said that he constructed around 100 foot bridges in the remote and far flung areas of district Udhampur without seeking a single penny from the state govt. He said that the said DC himself conceived ‘Rahat’ Scheme for the welfare of the people of rural areas and operationalised the same within the normal funding of the district thus providing immense benefits to rural populace who were bereft of the same. He said that the said DC created an atmosphere of work culture, transparency and accountability in the district with the common man reposing full faith in his administration. He said that the honest and transparent working of the said Deputy Commissioner was irking and troubling some corrupt elements who used their influence with the helmsman to get him transferred.
Singh further regretted that not only was the dedicated and people friendly Deputy Commissioner removed from district but some highly corrupt and tainted officers were being transferred to district Udhampur thus polluting the administrative set up in the district. He pointed out that several transfer orders of certain notorious officers had been issued for posting in district Udhampur especially in the deptts. of Revenue, Forests, Social Welfare, Engineering Deptts etc. He said that several officers had openly admitted of having paid huge amounts for their transfer to district Udhampur, Ramnagar and Majalta Tehsils and sought a high level probe into all such transfers.
Urging further upon the Chief Minister to review the highly illogical, vindictive and capricious transfer order of the said Deputy Commissioner, Harsh said that the district-wide protests manifested the people’s outrage against the whimsical transfer order. He further called upon GOI , Deptt. of DoPT to take due cognisance of the violation of IAS (cadre) IInd amendment rules 2016 and SOPs which were being ruthlessly circumvented in the State of J and K.